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Types of System Design: High-Level vs Low-Level⬅ Previous Topic
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Types of System Design: High-Level vs Low-LevelAs a beginner in tech or software engineering, you might come across the terms System Design and Software Design. Although they sound similar and often overlap, they refer to very different aspects of building software solutions.
This guide will help you understand these concepts clearly, using examples, explanations, and intuitive questions to guide your thinking.
System Design refers to the high-level design of an entire system. It deals with designing scalable, distributed, and robust systems that solve complex problems. It covers multiple components such as databases, servers, APIs, load balancing, caching, data flow, and network communication.
Software Design is concerned with how a particular piece of software or a module is structured. It focuses on code-level design, including classes, methods, design patterns, object interactions, and logic. Software design is mostly about writing maintainable, modular, and efficient code within a component.
Aspect | System Design | Software Design |
---|---|---|
Focus | High-level architecture of the full system | Internal structure of software components/modules |
Scope | Servers, databases, APIs, networking, scaling | Classes, methods, code structure, algorithms |
Design Tools | UML, flowcharts, architecture diagrams | Class diagrams, sequence diagrams, pseudo-code |
Audience | System architects, backend developers, DevOps | Software engineers, programmers |
Example Use Case | Designing Instagram's entire backend system | Designing the feed sorting algorithm in Instagram |
Imagine you are designing a chat application like WhatsApp.
You would think about:
You would focus on:
If you're deciding between using a SQL or NoSQL database for message storage, is it system design or software design?
This is a system design decision. Choosing the database type affects scalability, availability, and performance at the system level.
Let’s say you are building an Amazon-like online shopping platform.
Is deciding how to split functionality across microservices a software or system design task?
That’s a system design task because it involves architectural decisions about how components interact and scale.
Understanding this difference is important because:
Both are essential, but they serve different purposes in a project's lifecycle.
In an interview, if you’re asked to “design a ride-sharing app like Uber,” what kind of design is expected?
You’re expected to do system design — how the different services work together, how users are matched with drivers, how to handle scale, etc.
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